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Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.

Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University Director

Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.

Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University Director

Shinya Yamanaka received his M.D. from Kobe University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from Osaka City University in 1993. From 1987 to 1989 he was a resident at the National Osaka Hospital. He spent the period from 1993 to 1996 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco. He returned to Osaka City University Medical School to take an assistant professor position in 1996, and was appointed as an associate professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 1999, where he became a full professor in 2003. He moved on to take up his current position as a professor in Kyoto University in 2004. His research team announced the successful generation of mouse iPS cells in 2006 and of human iPS cells in 2007. With the breakthrough technology, he was appointed as a senior investigator at Gladstone in 2007. Since 2008, he serves as the director of the Center for iPS cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University.

Owing to his prominent deeds and discoveries, he has received many awards including 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (U.S.), 100th Imperial Prize and Japan Academy Prize (Japan) in 2010, 26th Annual Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology in 2010, 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine (Israel), order of Cultural Merit in 2012 (Japan) and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012. He was also selected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) in 2011.
He also received Japan Association of New Economy Innovation Prize in 2014.

Larry Ellison is Executive Chairman of Oracle Corporation and Chief Technology Officer. He was CEO of Oracle from 1977, when he founded the company, until September 2014. Under his guidance, Oracle has become one of the world’s largest enterprise technology companies, with more than 400,000 customers in 145 countries and annual revenues over $38 billion. Oracle has one of the most active mergers and acquisitions programs in the world, with more than 100 acquired companies in the past 10 years, valued at over $60 billion, including the industry transforming acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Mr. Ellison also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar. He sails with ORACLE TEAM USA, and successfully brought the America’s Cup back to the United States for the first time in over 15 years. In the summer of 2013, ORACLE TEAM USA defended the America’s Cup in an amazing comeback win against Team New Zealand. Mr. Ellison owns the BNP Paribas Open, the largest combined ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in the world. Mr. Ellison also founded The Lawrence Ellison Foundation.

Drew Houston

Dropbox
CEO and Co-Founder

Drew Houston

Dropbox
CEO and Co-Founder

Drew Houston is CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, and has led Dropbox’s growth from a simple idea to a service used by millions around the world. Before founding Dropbox, Drew received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2006. After graduating, Drew was endlessly frustrated by carrying USB drives and emailing himself files. In early 2007, he teamed up with fellow MIT student Arash Ferdowsi and the two began working on the project that would eventually become Dropbox. Drew has been named one of Fortune’s “40 Under 40”, and in early 2014 Drew and Arash were named TechCrunch’s “Founders of the Year.”

George R. Roberts

KKR & Co. L.P.
Co-Chairman and Co-CEO

George R. Roberts

KKR & Co. L.P.
Co-Chairman and Co-CEO

George R. Roberts co-founded KKR in 1976 and is Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. He is actively involved in managing the Firm and serves on each of the regional Private Equity Investment and Portfolio Management Committees. Mr. Roberts has served as a director or trustee of several cultural and educational institutions, including Claremont McKenna College. He is also founder and Chairman of the board of directors of REDF, a San Francisco nonprofit organization. He earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of California (Hastings) Law School in 1969. Mr. Roberts has more than four decades of experience financing, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies, as well as serving on the boards of a number of KKR portfolio companies.

Charles H. Rivkin

Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Departme…

Charles H. Rivkin

Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of StateAssistant Secretary

Charles H. Rivkin began serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs on February 13, 2014, and was sworn in publicly by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on April 15, 2014.

Prior to his appointment, Rivkin served for more than four years as the United States Ambassador to France and Monaco where he led America’s first and one of its largest diplomatic missions, which has six constituent posts throughout France and represents over 50 U.S. government agencies and sections. Rivkin’s confirmation marks the first time a U.S. ambassador and former CEO has ever led the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and he was brought in with a team of business leaders to help fulfill Secretary Kerry’s mandate that economic policy is foreign policy.

Prior to his government service, Ambassador Rivkin worked in the media sector for over 20 years where he served as President and CEO of award-winning entertainment companies such as The Jim Henson Company and Wildbrain. Rivkin helped engineer the sale of The Jim Henson Company in 2000 for nearly $1 billion. His contribution to the television landscape has influenced generations of viewers, and Rivkin was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company.

Ambassador Rivkin spent his early childhood in Luxembourg, Senegal, and The Gambia where his father, William R. Rivkin, was the United States Ambassador under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In honor of his father, Ambassador Rivkin and his family have proudly presented the U.S. State Department’s annual Rivkin Award, since 1968, encouraging “intellectual courage and constructive dissent” among officers in the U.S. Foreign Service. The award was created in part with the help of Charles Rivkin’s godfather, Hubert H. Humphrey.

Ambassador Rivkin received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1984, graduating with distinction in political science and international relations. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1988. In 2013, Ambassador Rivkin was personally awarded the Légion d’honneur with the rank of Commander by French President François Hollande.

YOSHIKI

Composer, Producer, Entrepreneur

YOSHIKI

Composer, Producer, Entrepreneur

Yoshiki is a songwriter, drummer, and a classically-trained pianist.
He produced a piano concerto to celebrate the tenth year of the Emperor of Japan’s reign, the theme song of the opening ceremony of the World Expo, the Hollywood movie theme song, and the official theme song for the Golden Globes®. He is a great musician who is performing in the world.
His rock group X Japan has sold 30-million singles and albums combined, and filled the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome a record 18 times. Now the band’s popularity is spreading throughout the world, having recently completed a sold-out World Tour, performing in North America, Europe, Latin America, and South East Asia.
He has been making headlines in the U.S. with his legendary band X Japan, which recently performed their first stateside concert in four years at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

John V. Roos was the United States Ambassador to Japan from August 2009 – August 2013. On Aug. 6, 2010 he became the first sitting U.S. Ambassador ever to attend the commemoration ceremony of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Ambassador Roos’ service in Tokyo coincided with the devastating 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis on March 11, 2011. Following this tragedy, Ambassador Roos led the American effort on the ground in support of Japan’s response to the multi-dimensional and unprecedented disaster. After the crisis, Ambassador Roos also led the creation of the TOMODACHI Initiative, a public-private partnership that has raised more than thirty million dollars and established more than 40 exchange programs.
Ambassador Roos is a member of the Board of Directors at Salesforce.com and Sony Corporation and the Global Advisory Board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Previously, Ambassador Roos served as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, & Rosati, the leading law firm in the United States in the representation of technology, life sciences, and emerging growth companies. Ambassador Roos is a graduate with honors and distinction from Stanford University and from Stanford Law School where he was Order of the Coif.

Taavi Kotka

Deputy Secretary General
ICT (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications)

Taavi Kotka

Deputy Secretary General
ICT (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications)

Taavi Kotka is the government CIO, Deputy Secretary-General for ICT of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, responsible for discussions about e-Estonia. Mr. Kotka started his career as a software programmer after graduating university. Prior to working with Estonian Government as the CIO, he was focusing on supporting innovative start-up companies as an investor as well as a founder. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of Nortal, the largest software development company in the Baltic region with offices in 8 countries and 650 staffs. Nortal is a leading company in e-government, e-health and telecom solutions provider in the region and also selected the most employee and family friendly company in Estonia in 2008 and in 2010.
Mr. Kotka is a board member of University of Tartu–Institute of Computer Science, Estonian IT Academy, and Estonian Chess Association. Mr. Kotka received Honors of the President of the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications from 2009-2013. He was selected the Entrepreneur of the Year in Estonia by Ernst & Young in 2011.

Nathan Blecharczyk

Airbnb
CTO & Co-Founder

Nathan Blecharczyk

Airbnb
CTO & Co-Founder

Nathan is the co-founder and CTO at Airbnb. He oversees the technical strategy of the company, and is dedicated to building a team of world-class engineers to keep Airbnb at the forefront of the industry. Nathan became an entrepreneur early on running a business while he was in high school, selling to clients in more than 20 countries. He received a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University and held several engineering positions with Microsoft, OPNET Technologies and Batiq before becoming a co-founder at Airbnb.

Wim Elfrink is Cisco’s Executive Vice President for Industry Solutions and Chief Globalisation Officer. He is responsible for three global functions at Cisco: the Industry Solutions Group, the Emerging Countries Initiatives, and the company’s globalisation strategy. Elfrink is an Executive Officer and sits on Cisco’s Operating Committee.

Elfrink joined Cisco in 1997 assuming global responsibility for Cisco Services Europe. In 2000, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Cisco Services and under his leadership the business grew from $3.3 billion to more than $7.6 billion in 2010.
Elfrink was appointed Chief Globalisation Officer in 2006 and was named Executive Vice President in 2007. He went on to establish Cisco’s Globalisation Centre East (GCE) in Bangalore, India. Over four years, Elfrink grew the GCE into Cisco’s second world headquarters, and an innovation hub.

Elfrink is recognised as Cisco’s Corporate Entrepreneur in residence and is responsible for leading Cisco’s company-wide efforts in support of the “The Internet of Everything” (IoE) and “The Internet of Things” (IoT). A core focus of Elfrink’s global charter is identify significant technology opportunities for city, country and business transformation in emerging countries that are experiencing significant economic, social and environmental change.

Elfrink is an active board member of the US India Business Council, the Silatech Board in Qatar, the New Cities Foundation, and the Chongqing Mayor’s International Economic Advisory Group. In 2009 Daily News & Analysis, a leading Indian newspaper, named Elfrink one of Bangalore’s 50 Most Influential People, one of 12 from the corporate world and the only non-Indian to be featured. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Ambassador C. Howard Wilkins, Jr. Award from the Netherlands-America Foundation.

Phil Libin

Evernote Corporation
CEO

Phil Libin

Evernote Corporation
CEO

Phil Libin is the CEO of Evernote, the service that’s helping millions of people worldwide remember everything of value in their daily lives. He is an entrepreneur and executive who has led two Internet companies from the very beginning to proven commercial success, and helped three others through rapid growth. Prior to joining Evernote, Phil founded and served as president of CoreStreet, currently one of the top companies providing smart credential and identity management technologies to governments and large corporations throughout the world. CoreStreet was acquired by ActivIdentity, now owned by HDI, in 2009. Previously, Phil was founder and CEO of Engine 5, a leading Boston-based Internet software development company acquired by Vignette Corporation (VIGN) in 2000, where he went on to serve as principal architect and chief technologist for applications.

Adi Tatarko

Houzz
CEO & Co-founder

Adi Tatarko

Houzz
CEO & Co-founder

Adi Tatarko is the CEO and co-founder of Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design that brings together both professionals and homeowners via mobile, local and social tools. Adi and her husband and cofounder, Alon Cohen, started Houzz out of challenges that they faced during their own home remodel. Today, millions of homeowners and more than 600,000 active architects, designers, contractors and other remodeling professionals connect through Houzz.com and its mobile apps every month, sharing their photos, advice and product recommendations.

John Zimmer

Lyft Inc.
Co-founder and President

John Zimmer

Lyft Inc.
Co-founder and President

John Zimmer is the co-founder and President of Lyft Inc. John’s interest in peer-to-peer transportation began at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Upon learning that only 20% of seats in cars on highways are occupied, he began working on ways to use existing information infrastructures to solve the problem of unused and empty seats. After graduating first in his class from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, John spent two years at Lehman Brothers before (luckily) leaving to rideshare his way from New York to San Francisco to join co-founder Logan Green in launching Zimride, and eventually Lyft.

With Lyft, John hopes to fix the current state of transportation to eliminate traffic and make our cities safer, more affordable and better connected. Since unveiling the product in June 2012, Lyft has quickly become one of the fastest-growing tech companies with more than $330 million raised from leading investors Andreessen Horowitz, Alibaba, Coatue and Founders Fund, and has been featured in The Economist, the New York Times and on NBC’s TODAY Show.

Jeremy Allaire

Circle
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Jeremy Allaire

Circle
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Jeremy Allaire is an Internet entrepreneur who has spent the past 20 years building and leading global technology companies with products used by hundreds of millions of consumers and millions of businesses worldwide. Jeremy’s first company, Allaire Corp, pioneered the Web application development platform and grew to become a profitable $120 million in revenue, NASDAQ-traded public company. Allaire Corp was later acquired by Macromedia, where Jeremy became CTO and helped transform Flash into a platform for rich applications and video, becoming the most widely adopted piece of software in the history of computing. Jeremy would go on to found Brightcove, the first Internet video publishing platform for websites, smartphones, tablets and connected-TVs. The company grew to become a profitable $120 million in revenue, NASDAQ-traded public company with customers including media companies and marketers in more than 100 countries. Today, Jeremy is founder and CEO of Circle, a consumer finance company focused on transforming the world economy with secure, simple, and less costly technology for storing and using money.

David Chao

DCM Ventures
Co-Founder and General Partner

David Chao

DCM Ventures
Co-Founder and General Partner

David Chao is a Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM Ventures, a global venture capital firm with over USD $2.5 billion under management. Prior to DCM Ventures, David worked at Recruit, Apple Computer and McKinsey & Company. He was also Co-Founder, acting CFO and CTO of JCI Japan Communications Inc., Japan’s first public mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Past DCM Ventures investments include About.com, Sling Media, Clearwire, Kabu.com, Kakao Talk, Fortinet, Vipshop, and 58.com. Currently, David is the Chairman of 51job and sits on the boards of Renren, BitTorrent, SoFi, Yik Yak and other DCM portfolio companies. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Legend Capital in China. David has been ranked as one of the Top global VCs by Forbes for over 8 years. David received a B.A. with high honors in Economics and East Asian Studies (Anthropology) from Brown University and a M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Charlie Duncheon

Grabit
Co-Founder and Advisor

Charlie Duncheon

Grabit
Co-Founder and Advisor

Charlie Duncheon has more than 30 years of senior management experience in leading the growth of robotic and automation companies. He is currently the CEO and Co-founder at Grabit, Inc., a robotics automation company utilizing patented electroadhesion gripping technology.

Prior to Grabit Inc., Duncheon was CEO of EIG America, Inc., and of Artificial Muscle Inc. Before joining Artificial Muscle, Duncheon was the Executive Vice President at robot manufacturer Adept Technology, Inc.

Duncheon has served on the Board of Directors for the Robotics Industries Association (RIA), the Automation Technology Council, and NEMA’s Automation Forum. Previously, he was elected as President of the RIA and received the Joseph Engleberger Leadership Award. He also served as the U.S. National Chairman for the United Nations’ International Federation of Robotics. In addition, he has served on the Board of MeshDynamics, Inc. as well as on the school and athletic board of St. Mary’s School in Los Gatos, CA.

Duncheon has published several technical papers on robotics and is the author of Reflections of a 5th Grade Girls Basketball Coach.

Duncheon received his MBA from Southern Illinois University and his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. He is registered Professional Engineer.

Michael Dunworth

SNAPCARD
Co-founder, CEO

Michael Dunworth

SNAPCARD
Co-founder, CEO

Michael Dunworth has experience both in finance, and in working with small businesses. After building and engineering financial software at Midwinter Financial Services, Michael co-founded and led Full Society Ltd. Full Society was a restaurant reservation and payments company that offered consumers deep discounts when using the platform. Michael led and grew the company to over 10,000 participating global merchants. Full Society was sold to InterMedia in 2013 and Michael has been deeply embedded in the world of digital currencies since his move to San Francisco.

Michael shapes and fully executes SNAPCARD’s vision. Additionally, Michael manages all business development, external outreach, and investor relations for the company. Michael is an active member of the Founders Network where he regularly speaks to aspiring entrepreneurs about starting and growing businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area.

John Hardy

Green School
Founder

John Hardy

Green School
Founder

After graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design, John set off to travel the world and settled in Bali. In 1975, he started a small jewelry business that grew into an international company. In 2007, John stopped working in the company to dedicate his time on advocating for and building a more sustainable world through education and design. As his first major project, he and his wife Cynthia conceived and created the Green School in Bali, Indonesia to deliver pioneering education for the future with a curriculum based on the Three Frame Day by Alan Wagstaff. The school commits to providing internationally recognized academic education that prepares the students with the ability to be competitive and successful in the wider world. The uniqueness of the school lies in the integration of traditional subjects, creative arts and green studies wrapped in rich layers of experiential, environmental, and entrepreneurial learning. John spoke at TED Global about the Green School and the USGBC awarded the school with the 2012 Greenest School on Earth award. Today, the school has a student body of approximately 275 from over 40 countries. In addition to the Green School, in 2009, John teamed up with his daughter Elora to create award winning Green Village and Ibuku. Collaborating on their combined 45 years experience in art and design, long interest in architecture and focus on working with regenerative and adaptable materials, the companies are setting out to establish new design vocabulary, construction techniques and engineering standards for bamboo residences, hotels, public buildings, interiors and furnishings.

Ari Horie

Women's Startup Lab
Founder

Ari Horie

Women's Startup Lab
Founder

Ari Horie is founder and CEO of Women’s Startup Lab, located in Silicon Valley, CA. She is a Japanese native, born in Hiroshima. Her passion is making an impact for women: increasing their contribution to revitalize the growth of business. The mission of Women’s Startup Lab is to empower female led startups to succeed by being stronger leaders, gaining an influential network of advisors and creating powerful startups that shape the world through innovation. The value provided by Women’s Startup Lab is resonating with the startup ecosystem, the business community, and groups focused on inclusion and diversity. Ari sees intrapreneurship as a capability for established companies to energize innovation and grow. She was recently named in CNN’s 10 Visionary Women, 20 Women Who Are Changing the Ratio by Marie Claire magazine, a keynote speaker at UpGlobal, SXSW V2V 2014 and SXSW Interactive Featured Speaker 2015, with media coverage by Fast Company, SUCCESS Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and a guest on Robin Morgan National live radio, as well as providing articles to the Huffington Post.

Mikko Hypponen

F-Secure
Chief Research Officer

Mikko Hypponen

F-Secure
Chief Research Officer

Mikko Hypponen is the Chief Research Officer of F-Secure in Finland.
He has been working with computer security for 24 years and has fought the biggest malware outbreaks in the net. He has written on his research for the New York Times, Wired and Scientific America.
Mr. Hypponen was selected among the 50 most important people on the web in by the PC World magazine, and the Foreign Policy magazine included him on the list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers”.

Kim Jones

Curriki
Chairman and CEO

Kim Jones

Curriki
Chairman and CEO

Kim Jones is the CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder of Curriki, a non-profit, global online community focused on improving education through technology for children. Curriki currently has over 10.5 million users and 59,000 courses making extensive use of digital media and social networking.

Kim was an Executive with Sun Microsystems for over 20 years. Most recently she was President and Managing Director for Sun UK & Ireland. Previously, Kim was Vice President of Global Education, Government and Healthcare. Kim established Education as an independent line of business for Sun.

Prior to this, Kim held a number of sales and marketing leadership roles at Sun where she had extensive international experience working with customers, employees and partners in over 100 countries including Europe, Asia, and Latin America, selling SUN’s enterprise hardware, software and services.

Kim has been active in driving public policy initiatives, evidenced by her testimony before the Congressional Web based Education Commission in the USA. She is also a regular keynote speaker on the impact of technology in education at technology conferences world-wide, including NCTET, the Worldwide Education & Research Conference (WWERC) and numerous other public sector forums.

In addition to her role at Curriki, Kim is a member of the MIT Open Courseware Industry Advisory Council. She has held numerous board positions, including John Wiley & Sons, the Confederation of British Industry, Climate Change Board, United Kingdom Corporate Leadership Group, Western Governors University Board of Trustees, the Jason Foundation Board of Trustees, and the World Bank Institute Advisory Board. Kim has received numerous awards and recognition throughout her career.

Miki Kuusi is the Founder, Creative Director and Board Member of the Helsinki-based tech conference Slush. In 2011-2014, he led the event’s growth as its CEO from a local, 150-person event to become one of the leading startup events in the world, reaching 14,218 attendees from 79 countries in 2014. Kuusi has been a driving force in the Nordic startup ecosystem. Prior to Slush, he served as the Founder & CEO of Startup Sauna, which was awarded as the leading young accelerator program in the world by UBI Index in spring 2013. Aside from Slush, Kuusi currently focuses on his new company Wolt, which raised half a million in seed funding in October 2014.

Jess Lee

Polyvore
Co-Founder & CEO

Jess Lee

Polyvore
Co-Founder & CEO

Jess Lee is CEO of Polyvore. Polyvore lets people shop for fashion, beauty and home decor in one, easy convenient place, and allows you to get inspiration for how to style any item from the world’s largest fashion community.

Jess is half-Japanese, half-Chinese, and grew up in Hong Kong. She moved to the US at the age of 17 to study Computer Science at Stanford University. After graduating, she worked at Google as a product manager for Google Maps. While at Google, Jess discovered Polyvore and became a passionate user of the product. A product manager at heart, she had ideas for how to improve the site and sent the Polyvore co-founders an email with ideas and suggestions. This led to her joining Polyvore as the first employee. She eventually became Vice President of Product and then CEO. Jess has been featured in Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list and Glamour Magazine’s Top 35 Under 35 Women in Tech. Jess loves drawing and manga.

Sumant Mandal is a cofounder and Managing Director of March Capital Partners, and a Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners. Sumant has 12-years of technology investment experience, and has generated multiple meaningful exits in companies he has either incubated or been the first institutional investor, including an early investment in PayPal with Clearstone. Sumant has supported numerous companies’ attainment of market dominance, including The Rubicon Project (NYSE:RUBI), the world’s largest display advertising company, and BillDesk, India’s leading electronic payments company (a company for which Clearstone led an early financing round in 2006). Other investments include Kazeon Systems (acquired by EMC), Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Cetas (acquired by VMware), and Apture (acquired by Google).

In addition to co-founding March Capital Partners, Sumant co-founded two leading technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Hive and The Fabric. There, Sumant has supported numerous projects in the sectors of Big Data, Payments, Cloud Computing, Advertising, Network Infrastructure, and Storage, and sits on the boards of numerous Hive and Fabric incubated companies. In March 2015, Rakuten’s Marketing department acquired Hive-incubated company Deep Forest Media. Other incubated exits included Kosei to Pinterest in January 2015.

Sumant received his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Ann Miura-Ko

FLOODGATE
Co-founding Partner

Ann Miura-Ko

FLOODGATE
Co-founding Partner

Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding partner at FLOODGATE where her investment interests include the innovations in e-commerce, security, and big data. Her board seats include Modcloth, Refinery29, Chloe and Isabel, Wanelo, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Rise, and Inscopix. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she got her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security.

Michelle Phan

ipsy
Co-Founder

Michelle Phan

ipsy
Co-Founder

Michelle Phan is a digital pioneer, who trail-blazed her way in the world of fashion and beauty on YouTube. With a growing global community of over 7.5 million, Michelle’s videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times, making her one of the most watched talents in the digital space. She is an award winning content creator, and was recently honored with the first ever Streamy ICON award, as well as Forbes 30 Under 30 in the category of Art and Style.

In addition to her immensely successful YouTube channel, Michelle is the Founder & Executive Producer for FAWN (For All Women Network), a women’s lifestyle network, and co-founder of ipsy.com, a destination for beauty devotees to network, try new products, and watch and upload beauty tutorials. In 2013, Michelle teamed up with L’Oreal to launch her make-up line em Michelle Phan.

Most recently, Michelle has joined forces with Cutting Edge Group to launch Shift Music Group, a unique model for a recording and music publishing company that leverages the power of social media to spread awareness for new and existing artists. Michelle also launched a book in October 2014, called “Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success – Online and Off.”

Pille Parikas

eKool
Managing Director

Pille Parikas

eKool
Managing Director

Pille Parikas is the Managing Director of eKool (eSchool), the leading educational information platform in Estonia.

Having gained experience from executive roles in banking, IT and financial services, she now leads the team developing the eSchool platform that brings together pupils, educators and parents to create a more transparent, efficient and fun learning experience.

Jesse Powell

Kraken
Co-founder and CEO

Jesse Powell

Kraken
Co-founder and CEO

Jesse Powell is an expert in virtual currencies, online/international payments and fraud, as well as co-founder and CEO of Kraken, the most trusted Bitcoin exchange with no.1 EUR market share. Jesse Powell is a 14-year veteran of the virtual currency industry.
He was a professional Magic the Gathering player at 15, collegiate at 16 and entrepreneur at 18.
By 21, Jesse founded Lewt, a global company providing virtual goods and services to MMORPG players, which grew to $10mm in revenue. Since early 2011, Jesse has acted as a pioneer within the Bitcoin space.
Recently, Kraken celebrated its launch in Japan and is committed to fulfill the community’s long-standing need for a trustworthy Bitcoin exchange in Japan.

Sam Schillace joined Box in 2012 and is Senior Vice President of Engineering. Before Box, he spent several years at Google, where he was an engineering director on Gmail™ and Google Docs™, Calendar™, Groups™ and Reader™. In that role, he managed a global team of 600 engineers, from Mountain View to London. He also served as a principal and EIR at Google Ventures. Sam co-founded Writely, then sold it to Google in 2006 – where it became the core of Google Docs. He earned his M.A. and B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan.

Harpinder Singh

Slice
COO & Cofounder

Harpinder Singh

Slice
COO & Cofounder

Harpi has been an entrepreneur in the internet and wireless space. He is currently the co-founder and COO for Slice which was acquired by Rakuten. He is also an Investment Partner at Innovation Endeavors, an early stage venture fund. Previously he was the co-founder and Sr. VP Marketing at FiberTower, a leading independent provider of backhaul to wireless carriers which was acquired by First Avenue Networks. He also held software development roles building internet infrastructure and transaction processing software at Oracle and Bull-Honeywell.
He holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and a BS in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, India.

Riccardo Zacconi

King
Chief Executive Officer

Riccardo Zacconi

King
Chief Executive Officer

Riccardo Zacconi is one of our founders and has served on our Board of Directors and as our chief executive officer since March 2003. With over 20 years of experience in strategic management, consulting and e-commerce, Riccardo brings exceptional knowledge and expertise to both the social and casual gaming domains.

Previously, Riccardo served as vice president of European Sales and Marketing at uDate.com Ltd., an online dating service, and was involved in driving market penetration and partnerships until the company was acquired by InterActive Corporation in 2002. Before that, he was managing director for Spray Network GmbH an online portal based in Hamburg with a presence in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In this role, Riccardo demonstrated his understanding for developing solid company strategy, intelligent plans for sustainable growth and strategic partnerships, which supported the successful sale of Spray Network to Lycos for $764 million. In addition, Riccardo has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital Partners, a Qualified Case Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. and a consultant at LEK Consulting LLP. He holds a B.A. in Economics from LUISS University, Italy. Riccardo’s favourite King game used to be Jungle Bubble. He’s currently deciding on his new favourite King game.

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David Hornik

August Capital
General Partner

David Hornik

August Capital
General Partner

For nearly two decades, David has worked with technology startups throughout the software sector. In 2000, David joined August Capital to invest broadly in information technology companies, with a focus on enterprise application and infrastructure software, as well as consumer facing software and services.

Prior to joining August Capital, David was an intellectual property and corporate attorney at Venture Law Group and Perkins Coie. In his legal practice, David represented high tech startups in all aspects of their formation, financing, and operations. Before that, David was a litigator in New York City at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

David has an eclectic educational background. He holds an AB in Computer Music from Stanford University, an M.Phil in Criminology from Cambridge University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

David is currently a lecturer at the Harvard Law School, where he teaches entrepreneurship and venture capital, and previously lectured at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he taught intellectual property. He is the author of VentureBlog, the first venture capital blog, and VentureCast, the first venture capital podcast, and is the founder and executive producer of The Lobby conference, an annual gathering of the thought leaders of the digital media ecosystem.

Scott Stanford

SherpaCapital
Co-founder and Managing Director

Scott Stanford

SherpaCapital
Co-founder and Managing Director

Mr. Stanford has been focused on the Internet/technology sector for 20 years in the capacity of advisor, operator and investor.

Until March 2013, Mr. Stanford co-headed Goldman Sachs’s Global Internet Investment Banking business based in San Francisco. In his twelve years at Goldman he advised clients on $80 billion of equity and debt financings and strategic transactions and was deeply involved in making approximately $1.6 billion of principal investments in technology-enabled companies including Facebook, Uber, DST/Mail.ru and LinkedIn. His client coverage responsibility included companies such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Groupon, Zillow, Airbnb, Uber and many other established and emerging technology-enabled companies.

Prior to Goldman, Mr. Stanford was an early employee of LookSmart, helping build the company from a start-up to a publicly traded NASDAQ company. During his tenure he held several technical, product, financial and strategic management positions including heading eCommerce, overseeing Product and Development, running Strategy and Corporate Development and running Business Development.

While in business school, Mr. Stanford coded prototype applications for two startup ideas, one focusing on community service and the other focusing on automating & prototyping core financial analyses. He has been coding since the age of thirteen.

Mr. Stanford received his B.A. with Honors from Harvard College (Social Studies) and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mitsuru Izumo

euglena Co., Ltd.
President

Mitsuru Izumo

euglena Co., Ltd.
President

Izumo is a founder and President of euglena Co., Ltd., the world’s first biotechnology company to succeed in the outdoor mass culture of microalgae Euglena for food use.

Izumo founded the Company in 2005 to address the problem of world-wide hunger and malnutrition, motivated by his experience in 1998 when he visited Bangladesh and saw the problems of famine and poverty. The Company has developed the ability to mass-cultivate Euglena, single-celled nutrient-rich microalgae that grow by photosynthesis using CO2. The Company manufactures Euglena based food products such as functional foods, supplements and drinks, and markets them through EC site, GMS, convenience stores and retail stores across the country. It also has developed a hydrolyzed extract of Euglena that can be used in cosmetics and hair care products. The core competency of the Company is its continuing research and development of Euglena for various applications, which are far reaching. For example, the Company is pursuing solutions to global warming utilizing the very high CO2 absorption properties of Euglena. The Company is also working to develop bio jet fuels from Euglena in cooperation with Hitachi, All Nippon Airways and JX Nippon Oil & Energy. The Company is listed on the First section of Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the market capitalization is US$1,061 million as of 15th January 2015.

In 2002, Izumo graduated from the University of Tokyo with a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture in specializing Agricultural Structure and Business Administration, and entered the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. He wrote a book “I’ve decided to save the Earth with Euglena”, (“Bokuwa midorimushide sekaio sukuukotoni kimemashita” in Japanese) in 2013.

Takuma Iwasa was born in 1978, graduated from the Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of Science and Engineering. From 2003 he engaged in product planning of internet-connected consumer electronics at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (now Panasonic Corporation). In December 2007 he launched launched Cerevo Inc. and was appointed as its president. Among other products, Cerevo sells “CEREVO CAM live!”, the world’s first digital camera with live internet delivery capabilities, and the “LiveShell” series, which are video streaming devices that give existing video cameras the capability to provide live content delivery.

Miki Iwamura oversees Google Consumer Marketing in APAC and all the marketing activities across B2C and B2B for Japan. Since she joined in 2007, she started maor marketing activities including x-media brand campaign for the first time in Google globally and contributed to Google to become No.1 Consumer Brand in Japan in 2010 and Brand of the Decade by Nikkei in 2013. Her work led Google Japan to become Advertisers of the Year among all the advertisers in APAC countries at AdFest, the most respected APAC wide ad festival. In addition, Google JP marketing team’s series of work won 13 awards including 3 Gold at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2012. She also evangelizes for new marketing approach with digital at heart and also initiated initiated series of activities to contribute to the community which include Innovation Tohoku and Memories for the Future to support those impacted by the 3.11 crisis. Most recently she is leading the Asia Pacific wide efforts to empower women by connecting them with possibility of technology.
Prior to Google, she was brand CEO of one of the luxury brands at Richemont, a holding company of luxury jewelry, watch, fashion brands. Her broad experience also includes CMO/EVP at an internet photo sharing service, strategic consulting, and strategic planner at Dentsu. She also taught strategy and marketing as Associate Professor at Nihon University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from College of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo University and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Shihoko Urushi

Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin
Principal

Shihoko Urushi

Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin
Principal

Shihoko Urushi is the sixth principal of Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin, a combined all-female junior high and high school that was founded in 1925.

She completed a postgraduate course at the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Waseda University. Prior to her current appointment, which she has held since 2006, she gained experience as a Japanese teacher.

In June 2013 she attended the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Shihoko Urushi has also been a committee member for the Education Rebuilding Council; member of a study group deliberating over the most suitable role of cultural events and related matters aimed at 2020 for the ACA (Agency for Cultural Affairs); and a member of a study group on promoting entrepreneurial education at an elementary and junior high level for METI (Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry).

Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin went through a major reform in 1989 which led to the number of applicants growing some 60-fold for the following 7 years. At present, efforts are being applied towards developing the kind of school that connects students with society through a hands-on entrepreneurial program, collaborations with corporate businesses, and other such means. The school’s ’28 Project’, which nurtures students to be active in the community by the age of 28, acts as an educational pillar to support these efforts. In 2014 the school was designated as a Super-Global High School.

Shihoko Urushi’s spends her free time training for and participating in triathlons. In 2012 she represented Japan in her age group at the 2012 ITU (International Triathlon Union) World Championship in Spain.

After graduating from Waseda University, and completing graduate studies in the US, worked as a market research analyst in the US. Returned to Japan, and worked for a market research company, before joining Intel in 2000. Following several roles in upper management, was appointed as General Manager of Marketing Headquarters, responsible for brand strategy, sales promotion planning, market research, and Internet marketing. In 2010, became responsible for Intel’s marketing activities in the Asia-Pacific region, as Director of Marketing and Consumer Sales, based in Hong Kong. Was appointed to current role in October 2013.

Works to open up new markets and create demand, by utilizing knowledge and experience gained through implementing and leading a diverse range of marketing activities for over two decades. Also utilizes her far-reaching experience of working in the US, Japan, and Asia to cultivate employees with the skills to succeed in global business.

Osamu Ogasahara

ABBALab inc.
CEO

Osamu Ogasahara

ABBALab inc.
CEO

Osamu Ogasawara joined the Architectural Design Office of Kyoto City in 1990.
He gained experience as a joint founder of data center and hosting company SAKURA Internet Inc., after which he served as the representative director of NEPRO IT Co., Ltd., where he engaged in internet infrastructure and mobile services from a time when each was in its early stages of development.
He has since focused his efforts towards projects that support startups, including seed investment for a startup themed on the key-phrase ‘Open x Share x Join =∞’, and operation of a shared-space business.
His investment program was incorporated to become ABBALab in 2013, from which time investment began in IoT product prototyping.
2013 also marked the year that he launched DMM.make 3D PRINT as a producer for DMM.make. This was followed by the launch of DMM.make AKIBA in 2014.
Among other endeavors, he has also acted as a committee member for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Study Group on New Monodzukuri, a project manager for Frontier Makers from the same government agency, and a member of the board of directors for Fukuoka City Startup Supporters.
Osamu Ogasawara was born in Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture in 1971.

Hiromi Okuda

Takaranoyama, Inc.
CEO & Founder

Hiromi Okuda

Takaranoyama, Inc.
CEO & Founder

Born in Kagoshima, Hiromi Okuda earned her Master’s of Social Welfare (MSW) from India’s University of Bombay (currently known as the University of Mumbai). In 1991 she launched a conference-support business specialized for the IT field, enabling a great number of IT-related private product showcasing events to come to Japan. In 2001 she founded Wizgroup Inc. and was appointed as its CEO. In 2012 she was prompted by the launch of ‘fin.der.jp’, a web media business that focuses on a blend of rural areas and IT, to launch Takaranoyama in the depopulated area of Tokushima Prefecture.

Hiromi Okuda set up IT Fureai Cafe as a venue to offer IT support to senior citizens in rural areas, including those depopulated villages where most of the inhabitants are elderly. Sensing the day-to-day needs of residents, she started an IT product co-creation and co-development business that delivers products right to development sites. She is engaged in building systems that connect IT product development to the important social issues that are difficult to grasp from a development site’s perspective.

As a member of a review panel on discovering untapped human resources and development projects for the IPA (Information-Technology Promotion Agency), and as a committee member for the IPA’s white paper on IT human resources, she helps support an innovative young generation in confronting challenges.

Shinya Ominami was born in Kamiyama City, Tokushima Prefecture in 1953. He earned his master’s degree in engineering from the Stanford School of Engineering in the US. Since the early 90s, in an effort to find solutions that allow underpopulated areas to thrive, he has engaged in connecting rural regions to the rest of the world based primarily around art and the environment. His initiatives include regional revitalization with a global perspective, promoting resettling of entrepreneurs and young people through workers in residence, and creating jobs by attracting IT venture companies to set up satellite offices. An advocate of ‘creative depopulation’, he is working towards resolving various regional issues by amassing and integrating the ideas and skill sets of creative individuals. Shinya Ominami’s experience also includes positions as a Furusato-Zukuri (hometown-building) Advisory Council Member for Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat; a Regional Innovation Advisory Panel Member for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; a Visiting Professor at Tokushima University; and a Specially-Appointed Professor at Shikoku University.

Yuzo graduated from The University of Tokyo in 2001 with a Master of Engineering. Prior to bitFlyer, Yuzo worked as an Equities Derivatives and Convertible Bonds Trader at Goldman Sachs, focusing on market making for institutional investors as well as principal trading, and financing for corporations.
In January 2014, Yuzo founded bitFlyer. With investments from corporations such as Recruit and GMO, bitFlyer has become Japan’s largest Bitcoin company.
Using some of the world’s most advanced technical skills to create services including remittance, settlement, points exchange, and Bitcoin crowdfunding, bitFlyer offers more than just a Bitcoin marketplace, and aims to become the leading comprehensive Bitcoin platform in Asia.

movie

Kenji Kushida

Stanford University
Research Associate

Kenji Kushida

Stanford University
Research Associate

Kenji Kushida is the Japan Program Research Associate at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University and an affiliated researcher at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. He is the project leader of the Stanford Silicon Valley – New Japan Project

Kushida’s research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political economy, and information technology. He has written two general audience books in Japanese, entitled Baikaruchaa to Nihonjin [Biculturalism and the Japanese] (Chuko Shinsho, 2006) and Intaanashonaru Sukuuru Nyuumon [International Schools, an Introduction] (Fusosha, 2008).

Kushida holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. His received his MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

Hitoshi Kinoshita

Area Innovation Alliance
CEO

Hitoshi Kinoshita

Area Innovation Alliance
CEO

government ministries and businesses. Along with becoming acutely aware of his inexperience in business development during his experience as president, he also recognized the issues in the non-performance-based and subsidy-dependent type of community development that is ingrained in community development activities in Japan, and set his sights on promoting business-based community development.

Later, as a graduate student at Hitotsubashi University, he served as a researcher for RIETI (the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry) and the Tokyo Foundation. During this time he analyzed community development projects in and outside of Japan, and promoted the development of related business models. He also set up social work interests such as NPO Florence, and pursued the establishment of community development businesses nationwide. In 2008 he began to roll out district management programs for regional city centers on a national scale, starting with Kumamoto City. In 2009, He founded Area Innovation Alliance in collaboration with a local shopping districts and community planning businesses nationwide that promote autonomous regional revitalization through business means. Area Innovation Alliance’s reach currently spans across Japan, facilitating improved project results that include reduced introduction times via the systemization of relevant know-how and project development methods. Hitoshi Kinoshita is also active in introducing case examples of Japan’s community development to Europe, the US and Asia, and working with researchers to promote cooperation. In 2013 he launched the Organization for Private-Public Partnership Projects. Through this endeavor he is working towards promoting the nationwide growth of private and public cooperative projects, one example of which being the Ogal Project in Shiwa, Iwate.

Lin Kobayashi

International School of Asia, Karuizawa Founder and Chair of the Board

Lin Kobayashi

International School of Asia, Karuizawa Founder and Chair of the Board

Lin Kobayashi is the co-founder and Chair of the Board at International School of Asia, Karuizawa (ISAK), a residential high school that opened in Karuizawa in 2014. ISAK aims to bring together top students from around the world with the aim of developing leaders who are eager to work for positive change in their countries and communities.

Ms. Kobayashi’s passion for education began during her studies at a residential high school in Canada, and continued to develop over the years. Before returning to Tokyo in 2008 to launch the ISAK project, she spent two years working for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Philippines, where she worked to program non-formal education projects for street children. Prior to UNICEF, Ms. Kobayashi worked at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Ms. Kobayashi began her career at Morgan Stanley and holds an MA in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a BA in Development Economics from the University of Tokyo.

More recently, Ms. Kobayashi was honored with the title of “Young Global Leader 2012” by the World Economic Forum, was selected as a “Change-maker of the Year 2013” and “Nikkei Woman of the Year 2014” by Nikkei Business, one of Japan’s top business magazines. She is currently a member of the Committee for Japan’s Future under the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, as well as a member of the Council for the Implementation of Education Rebuilding, Cabinet Secretariat.

Genta Kondo

exiii Inc.
CEO, co-founder

Genta Kondo

exiii Inc.
CEO, co-founder

Graduated from the University of Tokyo in 2011 with a master’s degree in engineering.
He studied at UC Berkeley from 2009 to 2010. During his study term, he engaged in research in the areas of brain-machine interfaces (BMI) and cybernetics. Received the Miura Award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2010. He joined Sony Corporation in 2011and pursued the commercialization of robotics technology at the former Research Institute for Systems Technology, where he participated in projects such as Toy Alive and MESH. Then he resigned his post in June of 2014. Founded exiii Co., Ltd together with two other design engineers from a major electronics manufacturer in October of 2014. Genta Kondo is currently engaged in the development of ‘handiii’, a myoelectric prosthetic hand. exiii is significantly reducing the cost of prosthetic hands that previously cost over 1.5 million yen by taking advantage of 3-D printers and smartphones, while also adding a fresh new focus on great design. Rather than being an object that evokes ‘pity’, these prosthetic hands aspire to be regarded as ‘cool’, and are created based on the concept of being a casual and accessible choice for people.

After graduating from Waseda University’s Faculty of Law in 1996, Shinichi joined the financial unit at Itochu Corporation. He joined the Japanese Internet media company CyberAgent in 2000, and in 2006 became the first president of its corporate VC spinoff, Cyberagent Ventures. In 2008, he assumed the position of COO at Cyberagent itself.Since 2010, Shinichi has acted as president of CyberAgent’s U.S. branch, managing its Silicon Valley ventures.He co-founded WiL in 2013.

Mr. Kyuichiro SANO Joined Administrative Affairs Division, Research and Statistics Department, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Government of Japan in 1997. In 2009, he worked at Intellectual Property Strategy Promotion Headquarters, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan. He was assigned to Executive Advisor, Toyama Prefectural Government and Deputy Director-General, Commerce, Industry and Labor Department, Toyama Prefectural Government.
His current position is Special Assistant to Director-General, Economic Policy Unit, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Naoko Samata

Coiney, Inc.
CEO

Naoko Samata

Coiney, Inc.
CEO

Naoko Samata is the CEO of Coiney, Inc., provider of the credit card payment service “Coiney,” which uses a dedicated credit card reader in conjunction with a smart phone or tablet. Coiney is expanding, especially among sole proprietorship’s and SMEs, due to the simplicity of its service – based on speed, low cost, and ease-of-use. Her career background includes contributing to the expansion of US-based online payment service PayPal, participating as a marketer in the launch of PayPal’s Japanese subsidiary. Naoko Samata earned a METI Award at the first annual Japan Venture Awards.

Masaaki Taira

State Minister of Cabinet Office.

Masaaki Taira

State Minister of Cabinet Office.

After graduating from the School of Law, Waseda University and working as a salaried employee, Mr. Taira joined Yamakuni, a wholesaler trading in the Ota Vegetable and Fruit Market, as the future successor of his family business. He became president of the company in 1996. In 2003 he assumed the post of President at the Junior Chamber International Tokyo. He became a Member of the Basic Policy Committee of the Industrial Structure Council, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and was elected for the first time to the 44th House of Representatives (Tokyo 4th district) in 2005, and for a second time to the 45th House of Representatives in 2009. He was subsequently elected a third time in 2012 to the 46th House of Representatives, and again for a fourth time in 2014. He has served as: the Director for the Economy, Trade and Industry Division of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP); the LDP Shadow Cabinet Director for the Committee on Audit and Oversight of Administration of the House of Representatives; Director-General, Information Research Bureau; Committee on Audit and Oversight of Administration, the House of Representatives; Parliamentary Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, METI; Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office; LDP Deputy Secretary-General. He is currently serving as State Minister of Cabinet Office.

Mikio Tanaka

Mayor of Nanto City, Toyama

Mikio Tanaka

Mayor of Nanto City, Toyama

Mikio Tanaka was born in Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture (formally known as the Higashitonami district of Togamura village) in 1961.

After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering at Kogakuin University in 1984, he joined YKK Yoshida Kogyo K.K. In 1989 he returned to his hometown of Togamura to serve in the village’s town hall.

In 2004, a major merger during the Heisei era of four towns and four villages created Nanto City, and he ran and was elected to serve as city council member. Nanto City amalgamated the former towns of Johana, Inami, Fukuno, Fukumitsu; and former villages of Taira, Kamitaira, Toga, and Inokuchi.

After serving for one term as a city council member, in 2008 he ran and was elected to become mayor of Nanto City. He was re-elected in 2012 and is currently serving his second term. Mikio Tanaka also serves as Chairman to the National Conference of Municipal Rowing Centers, and Chairman to the National Regional-Brand Association.

Born and raised in a depopulated area, and having a track record of self-driven community development that leverages the inherent appeal of rural areas, Mikio Tanaka has set his sights on making the region a “top-tier rural area deserving of praise on a global scale.” To accomplish this, he will capitalize on the region’s culture, natural environment, and Nanto City’s designation as a World Heritage Site in recognition of its unique Gokayama Japanese architecture of traditional steep thatched roofs.
His motto is to have gratitude and be altruistic towards others.

Yoshikazu Tanaka

GREE, Inc.
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Yoshikazu Tanaka

GREE, Inc.
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Yoshikazu Tanaka founded GREE, Inc. in December 2004, and serves as the Company’s founder and chief executive officer. Before founding GREE, Yoshikazu worked at Sony Communication Network Corporation (now So-net Corporation) and Rakuten, Inc. While at Rakuten, he started developing the social network GREE in his spare time. Yoshikazu earned a bachelor’s degree in law from Nihon University in 1999. He was appointed chairman in September 2014.

Takeshi Hakamada

ispace technologies, inc.
Founder & CEO

Takeshi Hakamada

ispace technologies, inc.
Founder & CEO

Takeshi Hakamada, an entrepreneur in the new space industry, is founder and CEO of ispace techonolgies. inc. ispace is developing space robotics that will create and support daily existence in space by mapping valuable resources in space. He is also leading a Japanese team, HAKUTO, competing for Google Lunar XPRIZE, a robotic lunar surface mission traveling across the surface of the Moon while sending back to Earth specified images and other data. In January 2015, Hakuto won the Milestone Prize. He earned M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Takuya Hirai

Member of The House of Representatives / IT Strategy C…

Takuya Hirai

Member of The House of Representatives / IT Strategy Council Chairman of Liberal Democratic Party

Mr. Takuya Hirai was born in 1958 in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University. After serving as the President and CEO of Dentsu and Nishinippon Broadcasting Co., Ltd., he was elected for the first time in the 42nd House of Representatives election. Since then he has been elected consecutively six times.
The positions that Hirai has served includes as follows: Director of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Economy, Trade and Industry Division; Director of the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Division (Shadow Cabinet Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications); Vice Chairman of the Policy Research Council; Director of the LDP’s Internet Media Division; Parliamentary Vice-Minister in charge of IT for the Cabinet Office; Senior Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport; Chairman of the Standing Cabinet Committee.
He takes a lead about his party’s IT policies and internet / media strategies, including his recent achievements; the supervision of Digital Nippon 2014 as the Chairman of the LDP’s Special Mission Committee on IT Strategy (formerly Special Mission Committee on e-Japan), and the launch of “CafeSta,” a video streaming service studio located on the 1st floor of the LDP’s headquarters.

Mineyuki Fukuda

Member of the House of Representatives / IT Strategy C…

Mineyuki Fukuda

Member of the House of Representatives / IT Strategy Council Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party

Mr. Mineyuki Fukuda was born in 1964. He is a Liberal Democratic Party Member of the House of Representatives. After serving two terms as a Yokohama City Council Member, he moved into the realm of national government. He is currently serving his third term in the House of Representatives (positions served include Committee on Judicial Affairs Director, and Commission on the Constitution member). Within his party, Fukuda has worked as Chief Secretary for the Special Mission Committee on IT Strategy, the Hydrogen Society Promotion Committee, and the Media Content Subcommittee, and he exercises his skills as practical policy maker in the areas of IT, energy, and media content. His motto is that politicians should take more responsibility for designing policy not to discuss the use of tax but to increase tax revenue. Fukuda also actively supports “Abenomics” as an influential member of LDP. He also strongly works with venture capital and incubation support programs.

Mr. Akira MATSUNAGA passed National Civil Service Examination I (Law) in 1985 and graduated 1st Course (Private Law), Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo in 1986.
Then, he joined General Affairs Division, Industrial Location and Environmental Protection Bureau, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Government of Japan. In 1993, he was appointed a Coordination Team Leader, Economic Cooperation Coordination Office, Economic Cooperation Division, Economic Cooperation Department, Trade Policy Bureau in Government of Japan.

After that, he was assigned to 1st & 2nd Secretary, Myanmar Embassy of Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan in 1995 and Private Secretary to the Minister of Finance, Deputy Director, General Affairs Division, Trade Policy Bureau, Government of Japan, subsequently in 1998.
In 1999, his new position was Deputy Director (Principal Leader), Planning Division, Planning Department, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, Government of Japan and Professor, Faculty of Economics, Nagasaki University was added to his career.

Mr. Haruki MUKAI graduated Faculty of Law, The University of Tokyo in 1981. In 2002, he worked at Budget Officer for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Budget Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan and was appointed to Director, Legal Division, Budget Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan in 2004.

His past career is as follows: Director, National Property Policy Planning and Legal Division, Financial Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan (2006), Counsellor for the National Council on Social Security, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan (2009), Deputy Director-General, Financial Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan (2010), Counsellor for the Social Security Reform Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan (2012). Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, Government of Japan (2012).
MUKAI was assigned to Counsellor for the Social Security Reform Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan, Deputy Head, National Strategy Office of Information and Communications Technology (Deputy Government Chief Information Officer), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan, and Director-General, Office of the Social Security and Tax Number System, Minister’s Secretariat, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan in 2013.

His current position includes as follows: Counsellor for the Social Security Reform Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan, Deputy Head, National Strategy Office of Information and Communications Technology (Deputy Government Chief Information Officer), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan, Director-General, Office of the Social Security and Tax Number System, Minister’s Secretariat, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and Deputy Director-General, Headquarters for Creating a Society in which All Women Shine, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan.

He joined the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) in 1998. Since then he has been in charge of administration in the area of ICT, primarily in technical standard establishment, system development, R&D project promotion, and standardization campaigns related to telecommunications & broadcasting.

Looking back on Yamano’s past decade, after he was in charge of establishing strategies related to science and technology as a deputy director for the Cabinet Office from 2005, he was posted overseas (United States). From 2009, after returning to Japan, he served as a Deputy Director for the Tariff and Telecommunications Access Policy Division of the Telecommunications Bureau, and was responsible for, among other things, the connection tariff system used between telecommunications businesses. From 2012 he has served as Deputy Director for the Broadcasting Technology Division of the Information and Communications Bureau, and has been in charge of establishing technical standards for the realization of 4K/8K compatible ultra-high definition TV (UHDTV) broadcasts, as well as broadcast safety and reliability measures.

He has been at his current position since 2014, managing various R&D projects and standardization strategies.

Koichiro Yoshida

CrowdWorks Inc.
Chairman and CEO

Koichiro Yoshida

CrowdWorks Inc.
Chairman and CEO

Koichiro is the Chairman and CEO of CrowdWorks. After working for Pioneer and Reed Exhibitions Japan, Koichiro joined the Japanese internet media company, Drecom as an operating officer and contributed to the listing of Drecom. After Koichiro left Drecom, he founded CrowdWorks in 2011, and in March 2012, CrowdWorks launched the crowd-sourcing platform service, “CrowdWorks” (https://crowdworks.jp/) under the mission of “Creating the New Work-Style of the 21st Century”. In December of 2014, CrowdWorks was listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market. As of February, 2015, over 360,000 workers and 60,000 clients have registered, and over 21 billion yen worth of jobs have been offered on CrowdWorks.

CrowdWorks was named as one of Nikkei Business’ “100 Start-ups which will save Japan”, and received the Jury’s Special Award of “The 1st Nippon Venture Award” in 2014.

Koichiro is also the author of the book “How Crowd Sourcing can Change Your Business” (“Kuraudoso-shingude bijinesuha koukawaru”).

MODERATORS

Yosuke Akiyoshi was responsible for launching Japan’s first crowdsourcing service, “Lancers,” and is currently engaged in overseeing strategy and operations as the company’s President and CEO.

While in University he launched an internet-related venture business. Then in 2005 he joined Nifty Corporation where he planned, developed, and managed several internet services.

Based on his experience being both employer and employee, he was inspired to establish Reet, Inc. in April 2008 (currently known as Lancers, Inc.) as a service to match corporations and individuals.

In December of the same year, he also began offering a crowdsourcing service known as Lancers which sought to allow corporations and individuals to freely interact via the internet.

This service has the distinction of not only being a pioneering crowdsourcing project in Japan, but also one of the biggest of its kind. Lancers offers a new approach to work that frees people from the confines of time and place – allowing them to live where they want and work when they want.

Literary works include:
・Akiyoshi, Yosuke. ‘Say Goodbye to the Crowded Commuter Train – A New Approach to Working Unrestrained by Time and Place’ (Business-sha), 2013
・Lancers. ‘A New Approach to Working Unrestrained by Time and Place’, 2013

Ms. Mina Ishiwatari was born in Tokyo in 1968 and graduated from the literature department at Rikkyo University before joining Nisshin Flour Milling (currently Nisshin Seifun Group headquarters). She worked in the Personnel Department and left the company in 1993. After accumulating experience of her part-time work at an advertising agency, she joined Hoppy Beverage, a company founded by her grandfather. She worked in Public Relations at Hoppy Beverage until she was eventually appointed as the company’s Executive Vice-President in 2003. Then, she was appointed as President and CEO of the company in 2010.

Mina Ishiwatari’s books include: ‘If the President Changes, So Will the Company!’ (Hankyu Communications); ‘If the President Changes, So Will the Company!’ (Asa Publishing); ‘The Hoppy Textbook’ (Nikkei Business Publications); and, ‘Technologies Can Be Copied, but Well-Developed Staff Can Not'(Sogo Horei Publishing)

She enjoys listening to classical music and collecting rare and wonderful fountain pens. She also received a master’s degree (MBA) from the Graduate School of Commerce at Waseda University. She currently attends at the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM) at Keio University.

Daisuke Iwase

LIFENET INSURANCE COMPANY
President & COO

Daisuke Iwase

LIFENET INSURANCE COMPANY
President & COO

Iwase started his career as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and was engaged in private equity investing at Ripplewood Japan. He co-founded Lifenet Insurance Company in 2008 and assumed the current role in 2013. Iwase was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010, and is an author of many best selling books in Japan, including “Seimeihoken no Karakuri (The Gimmicks of Life Insurance)”. He is also a member of the Tokyo Committee of Human Rights Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending human rights worldwide. Iwase is a graduate of The University of Tokyo (Law) and Harvard Business School (MBA with High Distinction). He serves as an Independent Director of Benesse Holdings, Inc..

Takashi Inoue was born November 1968. He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University, College of Economics, in 1991. In April of the same year, he joined Recruit COSMOS Co., Ltd.(now COSMOS INITIA Co., Ltd.) to work as a sales representative of new condominium apartments. During his time there, he began having doubts about the real estate industry. Convinced that the way the real estate industry was set up should be changed, Inoue left his job in July 1995 and established NEXT, Co., Ltd. in March 1997. The home and Real estate information site “HOME’S.”was launched with the aim of establishing an information infrastructure that made use of the internet. HOME’S has grown to become one of Japan’s largest real estate and housing information listing sites. Since 2011, NEXT has started business in Asia. In 2014, NEXT acquired Trovit Search, S.L, which is a Spanish company and runs one of the world largest aggregation sites. He aims to create a system where people can find the perfect home for them by building an information platform offering real estate and ’Life’ information from across the world. NEXT is currently developing content and service offerings in 43 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Daisuke is co-founder and CEO of freee, Japan’s top online accounting and payroll software company in SMB segment. freee syncs with most of Japanese banks and automate accounting and payroll tasks of SMBs. freee has been growing very fast since its launch in 2013 and already is used by over 200,000 businesses in Japan. Prior to founding freee, Daisuke was Head of APAC SMB acquisition marketing at Google and helped Asian SMBs to adopt Google’s ads product. He also held a position of CFO at Albert Inc. (TSE:3906).
Daisuke is a graduate of Hitotsubashi University.

Tetsuya Sanada

President and CEO, KLab Inc. / Executive Member, Japan…

Tetsuya Sanada

President and CEO, KLab Inc. / Executive Member, Japan Association of New Economy

A restless entrepreneur, Tetsuya Sanada founded several companies across a variety of fields while still a college student at Kwansei Gakuin University. In 1998, he created CYBIRD, of which he was the Vice President and CTO. Come 2000, Sanada set up yet another company, this time to serve as a mobile software R&D branch for CYBIRD, known as KLab (called “K Laboratory” at the time). Sanada has maintained the position of KLab CEO ever since.
While producing world first technologies for mobile, in 2009 KLab entered the market of social gaming and created numerous hit titles. In 2012, KLab got listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section.
We optimize our globalization through the synergies of our various local offices; Philippines, San Francisco, Singapore, and Shanghai. KLab is aiming to become the global leader of the online mobile game industry!

Yuki Naito was born in 1978.He launched Drecom Co., Ltd. in 2001 while studying at Kyoto University, and dramatically expanded the company’s performance through blogging services, eventually getting the company listed as a ‘Mothers’ (market of the high-growth and emerging stocks) component on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2006.
He is currently engaged in promoting expansion based on the company’s four core business areas of social gaming, social learning, advertising, and media, all of which are aimed towards users both domestically and abroad.
Yuki Naito is committed to creating new services and the ancillary opportunities that accompany them.

George Nishiyama

Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal Japan

George Nishiyama

Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal Japan

George Nishiyama is Managing Editor, responsible for overseeing The Wall Street Journal Japan (JWSJ) and Dow Jones’ Japanese Language Service (JLS) for institutional clients. George joined The Journal’s Tokyo bureau in 2011 as an editor in charge of economic policy coverage. Leading a team of reporters, he has been covering Abenomics from its launch, including the initial success of the Bank of Japan’s drastic easing measures and the struggle it is now facing amid an economic slowdown. More recently, he traded time with bureaucrats and politicians for time with a high-school baseball pitcher in a rural town for a feature on his challenge at making it to the pros. George grew up in the U.S. and in Japan, and prior to The Journal, spent 18 years at Reuters, where he last managed its Japanese website as Deputy Editor.

Koji Funatsu joined transcomos as a General Manager of Business Planning & Development Division in 1998. After joining transcomos, he has been in charge of Managing Director, Senior Managing Director and Vice President; he became Chairman, Representative Director & CEO in 2003. He is also the Director of KADOKAWA DWANGO CORPORATION and the Chairman of Call Center Association of Japan. He has an undergraduate degree from Hokkaido University and a master’s degree in economics from University College Dublin. He is a former Director of Recruit Hokkaido Jaran Co., Ltd.

Noriyuki was born in 1965 in Hyogo prefecture. He graduated from Osaka Prefecture University, School of Engineering, Mathematical Science Department in 1989 and after graduating, he joined IBM Japan, Ltd. and actively engaged in system development for financial institutions as a System Engineer, until leaving the company in 1993 to work as a System Consultant. On August 1996, he established SOURCENEXT Corporation, and since then has continued to lead the company to success, along with having the company listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2008.

Oskar Miel

Rakuten Fin-Tech Fund
Managing Partner

Oskar Miel

Rakuten Fin-Tech Fund
Managing Partner

Oskar Miel manages Rakuten’s fin-tech investment practice, working with financial technology start-ups in North America, Europe and Asia, and in close cooperation with Rakuten’s various financial services units. Oskar has extensive experience in the financial industry, covering investment banking and capital markets while at JP Morgan, private equity and retail financial services in North America and Europe. Oskar has led Rakuten’s bitcoin investment strategy, including a recent investment in Bitnet, Inc., a bitcoin merchant processor. Oskar earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.

Officers, JANE

Hiroshi Mikitani is a founder of Rakuten, Inc. – one of the world’s largest Internet companies, with operations in 28 countries and customers all over the world. He serves as the Chairman and CEO of the company.
In keeping with his conviction that a low-cost and open Internet environment empowers businesses and individuals to innovate, which leads to economic growth, Mikitani co-founded the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE), where he serves as Representative Director. In addition, he is a member of the Industrial Competitiveness Council, which compiles the Japanese government’s growth strategies since 2013.
Born in Kobe, Japan, Mikitani graduated from Hitotsubashi University in 1988, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993.

He founded CyberAgent in 1998 at the age of 24, and in 2000 listed the company on the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange,
becoming at the time the youngest company president in the exchange’s history.
The company moved to the TSE First Section in September 2014.
Fujita established the CyberAgent corporate vision to “create the 21st century’s leading company,”
seeking to create a high-growth company in the Internet industry.
CyberAgent continues to create new businesses in step with changes in the market environment.
We have created many new income sources, and as an organic growth, we have achieved sustained increase in revenue.
CyberAgent posted record high results both in sales and operating profit in the first quarter of FY2015 (October – December).
Fujita is the author of several books, including Confessions of a President Working in Shibuya, Entrepreneur, and Fujita Susumu’s Workology.
His official blog, “Ameba Blog of a President Working in Shibuya,” is at https://ameblo.jp/shibuya/

Kanemaru is a co-founder, the Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Future Architect Inc., a unique company in the IT industry to maximize customers’ future value as a mission and to lead a team of technology-oriented professionals. He has also taken on many roles including Cabinet officer for the Council of Regulatory Reform, Cabinet Secretariat for the IT Strategic Headquarters of the Japanese Government, as well as Vice Chairman of Japan Association of Corporate Executives.

Prior to establishing Future Architect Inc. (formerly Future System Consulting Corp.) in 1989, Kanemaru served for 4 years at NTT PC Communications as Executive Director. Earlier in his career, Kanemaru joined TKC Corporation, and later moved on to Logic Systems International (now Logic Corp).

Masatoshi Kumagai

GMO Internet Group
Founder&Group; CEO

Masatoshi Kumagai

GMO Internet Group
Founder&Group; CEO

Masatoshi Kumagai,(born July 17, 1963, Nagano, Japan), is the founder and head of GMO Internet Group. Under the company’s slogan “Internet for Everyone”, GMO Internet Group strives to be the leading all-in Internet services provider in Japan. GMO Internet Group consists of 79 companies (including 8 listed companies) and 4,200 staff.

Born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1972. He decided his life with a message “Be an entrepreneur, do a telecommunication business.” told by Sony founder Akio Morita. In 1998, he established Dream Train Internet Inc.(DTI) in response to request from Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and became a CSO. He made the company a “No.1 ISP in Customer Satisfaction”, and got listed on NASDAQ Japan. In 2000, he established FreeBit Co., Ltd. and got listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers in 2007. He aims to develop the Internet society by providing a “Smart Infrastructure” in multi-layer with patented technologies. In 2012, he became the auditor of Japan e-Business Association. Graduated from Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University.

Yasufumi Hirai is Executive Vice President and Representative Director
for Rakuten, Inc. and Chairman for Fusion Communications Corporation.
Before joining Rakuten, Hirai was a President and General Manager at Cisco Systems G.K., Hirai was a Senior Managing Executive Officer at Microsoft, leading its enterprise business in Japan. Previously, he spent 20 years at IBM Japan, Ltd., involved in Corporate Strategy, Telecommunications Industry Unit, Software Group, and other management positions. He served two separate assignments to New York for IBM.
Hirai is a trustee of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) and serving as an Adjunct Researcher in the Institute of Human Resource Studies, Waseda University.
Hirai is a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics, Kyushu University.

*Please note that speakers and moderators may change without prior notice.